Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

Dear Sir,

I discovered your website by running a search on the fate of HMAS Sydney. I have been a naval history enthusiast since the age of six. I am 41 years old today and working as an financial engineer / market economist. I am actually living in Paris, France.

There are three issues I would like to discuss with you : the fate of USS Indianapolis, Felix von Luckner/Seeadler, and  the JN25 IJN naval code.

USS Indianapolis (see the Ahoy article)

There is some information that may be useful to you concerning the clearing of the name of Charles Butler McVay, captain of USS Indianapolis. A 12 years old schoolboy from Florida managed to get the files reopened.

http://www.starbulletin.com/97/11/10/news/story3.html

http://www.usni.org/NavalHistory/Articles98/NHscott.htm

Finally, Captain's McVay name has been cleared by President Bill Clinton back in October 2000, shortly before the Bush Administration entered the White House.

http://www.ussindianapolis.org/resolution.htm

McVay's son who fought over 30 years to clear his father's name died shortly afterwards.

http://starbulletin.com/2001/06/30/news/index.html

Von Luckner

I also have some information on Graf Felix von Luckner. The problem is that the biography I own is in French.

JN25 Naval Code There is one question I would like to ask you. 10 years ago, I purchased the book "Betrayal at Pearl Harbor" by James Rusbridger and RAN Captain Eric Nave. I rediscovered it 2 weeks ago. I wonder if you ever met Captain Nave and if you have any additional information about the Australian/British team that broke the IJN JN25 code years before their US counterparts.

Best Regards.
Eryk SCHMID

Hello Eryk,

Thank you for your interesting E-Mail with all its information. Ahoy is a site produced jointly by my friend Terry Kearns from Atlanta Georgia, who puts up all that I write. We think we make a good team.

We will add a link to the information about Captain McVay and Bill Clinton to our story. Felix von Luckner draws more comment from people around the world who look at Ahoy, than anything else I have written about. Any new detail about that famous sailor from WW1 is always welcome, I am unfortunately not fluent in French, my 4 years study of that language at the Royal Australian Australian Naval College , so many years ago now, are inadequate in terms of being able to cope with a book in French.

Should you have time to share any details with us in English from your book we would be grateful. I did meet Eric Nave once when he was a Commander, but never discussed his code breaking work, he would not talk about that anyway. I have attached some detail about his work and where it took place in Melbourne during 1942.

By pure coincidence, we live on St Kilda Road Melbourne, and Queen's Road where Monterey House was located is the Road that runs parallel behind our Boulevard of St Kilda Road.

It was great to hear from you, and I look forward to further discussions.

Best regards from both Terry and myself.
Mackenzie ( Mac for short ) Gregory.

I am a Battle of Midway historian and in the 1950s I worked at NSA where I knew CDR Ralph Cook and Agnes Driscoll. In 1955 or so, Ralph introduced me to Bill Tremblay who decrypted the Japanese Flleet Plan message for the attack on Midway. Bill Tremblay is still living in Protem, Missouri, and Ralph Cook in Hawaii.

Unfortunately, FRUMEL has never received any recognition while at Melbourne or previously at Corregidor. I'm trying to gather that information to give them due credit.

Bill Price

ALLIED SIGNAL INTELLIGENCE UNITS AND OTHER SECRET UNITS IN AUSTRALIA DURING WW2
http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/sigint/sigint.htm

RAN/USN FLEET RADIO UNIT, MELBOURNE - FRUMEL http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/sigint/frumel.htm

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